Ban on rental registration clears legislature

Local delegation caught unaware

Posted: Wednesday, May 07, 2003

By Kate Carterkcarter@onlineathens.com

The Athens-Clarke County Commission's proposed rental registration ordinance may be dead on arrival.

Late at night on the last day of the state legislative session, the General Assembly passed a bill containing an amendment prohibiting local governments from requiring the registration of residential rental property. The amendment had no relation to the bill to which it was attached, and Clarke County's legislative delegates said Tuesday they had approved the bill without knowing it could possibly render the proposed local ordinance illegal.

The ordinance, under consideration Tuesday night by Athens-Clarke commissioners, is aimed at strengthening enforcement of quality-of-life ordinances, by keeping closer tabs on renters and landlords in single-family residential areas.

The state bill, passed 12 days ago, has not yet been signed by the governor, and state Sen. Brian Kemp, R-Athens, said Tuesday he has informed the governor's office that Athens-Clarke commissioners are concerned about the amendment outlawing rental registration.

Athens-Clarke Mayor Heidi Davison said Tuesday she had only found out about the amendment Monday. Meanwhile, Kemp and Democratic state Reps. Keith Heard and Louise McBee said they fielded calls from concerned commissioners over the weekend.

Davison said she does not yet know whether the law, if signed by the governor, would make the proposed Athens-Clarke ordinance illegal. She did, however, say the commissioners would likely vote on the ordinance Tuesday evening despite the uncertainty.

''Nobody seems to be sure about the applicability of (the state law),'' said Davison. ''... We don't have any clear answers from anybody.''

The amendment includes the statement, ''No local government is authorized to perform investigations or inspections of rental property unless there is probable cause to believe there is or has been a violation or violations of applicable codes, and in no event may a local government require the registration of residential rental property.''

Bill Berryman, Athens-Clarke County attorney, did not return a phone call placed late Tuesday afternoon.

The amendment was tacked onto a bill about enterprise zones, which offer tax exemptions to businesses expanding into certain areas of the state. State Sens. Steve Thompson, D-Powder Springs, and Mike Crotts, R-Conyers, introduced the amendment at 6:54 p.m. on the last day of the legislative session.

Thompson said he was asked by a state Realtors' group on the last day of the session to propose the amendment. And because he agrees that local governments should not be able to require rental registration, he said, he acquiesced.

Thompson added that he did not know at the time that the metro Atlanta communities of Marietta and Roswell have also been moving forward on their own versions of rental registration ordinances.

Thompson said the proposed amendment was a result of discussions between groups of Realtors and apartment owners, the Georgia Municipal Association and the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

But Ted Baggett, associate general counsel for the Georgia Municipal Association - a non-profit association representing nearly 500 local governments in Georgia - disputed Thompson's claim. He said GMA did not find out about the amendment until it had passed in the Senate and was poised to be approved in the House. At that time, he said, GMA held discussions with the groups of state Realtors and apartment owners to come up with a compromise that was ''less offensive.''

The compromise amendment, introduced in the House at 9:45 p.m. - within a couple of hours of the General Assembly's adjournment - and then passed, limited the amendment's application to residential property, eliminated language prohibiting a fee for the registration of rental property, and added a sentence that allows ordinance violations ''in plain view'' to establish probable cause for inspections.

Still, Baggett said the final amendment is unsatisfactory. He said the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association passed a resolution Tuesday morning urging Perdue to veto the bill.

''We're unhappy,'' said Baggett. ''I think it's unfortunate that this passed, especially in the manner that it did.''

Rental registration was added to the bill's preamble, which is a brief summary of what the bill entails, before it was voted upon by the House and the Senate, but Kemp, McBee and Heard all said Tuesday that they had no idea the bill had anything at all to do with rental registration.

''When something comes back across from the other aisle, we check for amendments,'' said Heard. ''I don't know what happened on this one. ... We wouldn't have wanted to tie the hands of our local commissioners.''